The recent repaving of the car park at the George Town Hospital has inexplicably not only reduced the width of the handicapped spots but also removed the extra path between cars that allowed for the passage of wheelchairs. These spots are now exactly the same size as regular spots, rendering them absolutely useless for anyone who cannot walk on their own. Can you please find out if the hospital will be fixing this issue?
Auntie’s answer: Based on the amount of feedback we received on a previous question regarding the use of handicapped spots, I feel I can safely say that this is a sensitive issue for many people. The idea of a hospital offering what appear to be useless handicapped spots for the people who most need them seems nothing short of ridiculous.
To find out what happened, I contacted the Health Services Authority (HSA). An official acknowledged the concern about the size of the repaved handicapped parking spaces and apologised for the inconvenience this situation is causing, then added, “Please note, this remains a work in progress with further changes to the parking striping and spacing being implemented in the coming week.”
But that answer did not really explain why the spots weren’t spaced properly to start with.
The HSA representative noted that there are plans to expand the public parking area in the coming months.
Might I ask the reader who posed the question or anyone else who visits the hospital to report back after a week to see if the parking situation has indeed been improved?
There shouldn’t be a problem for anyone to use a handicap parking area. Usually people who use them (me included) don’t intend to be more than a few minutes. And I don’t have a problem moving my vehicle right away for someone displaying their handicapped symbol. If the tables are turned and I am disabled I wouldn’t mind someone being in a handicap spot, sometimes their is another available parking spot. Something to think about- on average how many handicap users actually use a spot for a day. Multiple it by days of the month…. Seems like the space is being wasted most of the time when it isn’t in use, at least 14 days a month of non use. That seems selfish.
Seems like everything done here is a 2 times till done job. At least that’s some sort of job security.
Msybe we are just fortunate in Cayman but from my experience 98 percent of the times that I pull into a public parking lot here ALL of the designated disabled spaces are EMPTY. I totally agree we should have ONE PROPERLY designated space even if it does take up two regular spaces, but it is annoying when there are the normal three or four empty disabled spaces and I have to go someplace else or come back later to do my business because there is no where else to park.
You know what is anoying? When people like you have no consideration for the less fortunate. I see you think or believe that you can not or will not fall sick to where you will or would be in need of those parking spots. Have some compassion and consideration.
Says a fairly illiterate “concern” Caymanian.
It’s not just Cayman, you will find this to be true in the states too. These spots NEED to be there in the quantity they are whether in use all the time or not. Your comment is very insensitive and I find it easy to believe you would park in a blue spot cause “there are loads still available”. I saw a suv at the cinema park between two handicap spots thinking they were clever and I thought about the poor person who does need to park there and use that middle space to get out of their vehicle being blocked in. Trincay is right there and the security at CB should have put a clamp on that car considering the medical facility.
The incompetence of some government departments is beyond belief. It is not as if Handicapped Parking is a new idea. Is there no final oversight review before a plan is approved. And how can it be a work in progress with further lining to be done in the next week. What they mean is that they got caught with their trousers down, and now have to do the job properly.
Interestingly, this would probably be illegal in the UK (and I believe also in the USA) where there are specific guidelines for wheelchair accessible parking. My local hospital in the UK, all the supermarkets and the nearby regional airport have designated ‘blue badge only’ parking spaces that are roughly twice the size of a standard space.
These are the UK guidelines – disabled access parking spaces should be 2400mm x 4800mm with a 1200mm wide marked access zone between spaces and a 1200mm wide safety zone for boot access. Failure to comply with this could put the owner of the parking lot in breach of the Equality Act 2010.
The problem is in the Cayman Islands no one seems to give a toss about the needs of the disabled.